Love Is More Than A Chemical Reaction
by VanishRain
Summary: ‘It is not that your husband does not want to love you, Mrs. Booth, it is that he is not capable.’ The words constricted her ability to think but staring into the brown orbs pleading with her, unlovable was not something Temperance was willing settle for.
1. You Better Damn Well Try

_'It is not that your husband does not want to love you, Mrs. Booth'_ the doctor's words replayed over and over in her head, _'it is that he is not capable.'_

Not capable.

The words stung as fresh tears began to flow. How could a man that just six months ago loved everything around him not be able to love his own wife?

The man who once professed to even strangers his undying devotion to his partner now lay motionless on his bed, unable to do even the most mundane tasks for himself.

Her eyes were drawn to the shell of a man, of a man he once was. She knew the man she couldn't get out of her head, the one she made love with until the break of dawn and the one who had broken every logical, rational rule she had was there… somewhere. He just had to be.

"You okay, sweetie?" A soft hand rolled over Brennan's shoulder, "Jack and I can take him for the weekend."

"N- no…" Her pleading eyes shot up toward her best friend, "We can do this."

"So I see you hired those nurses, good for you Bren." Angela flashed a smile before leaving the room. Leaving Brennan alone with the man she once adored but now barely even knew.

But the truth was, she hadn't. Hiring someone to take care of her husband was admitting defeat. He was her husband after all, not theirs but _hers_. After all he had done for her, he deserved her being the one he woke up to every morning… the one who took the shattered man he had become and turned it into something beautiful.

The beauty in his actions were always there. He just needed a little help to become the man she knew he was, the man he had always been in her eyes.

Perfection. That is what he deserved, well… truth be told… much less then he deserved but she was not about to let the last six months of guilt riddle her feeble form. She was sick of crying, sick of the pity party, and most of all sick of the weak smiles everyone shot her way in their own dysfunctional way of self comfort. Sure, they had lost a friend but she had lost a lover, her best friend and most importantly her family… the pity was just downright degrading.

He was above all that. And he deserved more… much more then he had been give since they wheeled him into that emergency room.

A fraction of what he had done for her was her task at hand. A miniscule act of pure devotion. Will it be enough? She wasn't sure but she damn well was going to try.

She wasn't going to let them win once more. The world may have taken everything from her but one thing she was not about to give up was her husband. It was a fight to the death over the man who sat a few feet away, incoherently rambling about something no one was quite sure what was.

What was this thing you ask? This cruel, destructive thing?

This microscopic piece of metal that twisted the fate of two star crossed lovers?

You see that is where our story begins and ends. The singular piece of metal ripping through time and space landing squarely in the heart of a wounded soul, destroying another… practically freezing both hearts in time. For you see, that is where the story of our two lovers ends and begins as a consequence of such action.

Living and dying by the code both were sworn to protect. Lovers caught in the cross-hairs of a fate not their own.

Is it possible for rebirth? Only time will tell but one thing is true, love is a test as great as time. Some die fighting for it, some die because of it but in the end… we all die wanting it.

Just to be loved.

For Temperance Brennan learned that all too quickly on a frosty autumn night. The sound of glass shattering and she knew… she knew what they had done.

A stray bullet.

That is all it took to take the man she once knew, the man she loved and turn him into a ghost. Just fading in and out of time, never really there.

A stray bullet was all it took to make Temperance Brennan unlovable.

That same stray bullet would take everything she had, everything that made her, her and turn her into an unstoppable force. Unable to just live with being unlovable.

Damn it, Temperance Brennan was lovable.

"Ready to go?" She smiled at the ghost sitting before her. "I know I sure am."

His eyes dazedly tried to focus on her, the enigma that had never left his side. Through all the ups and downs they had had over his time in this foreign place, she had been his guiding light. The beacon to find his way back home.

As her lips pressed gingerly across his check, his heart skipped a beat causing the spark to cascade between the two. Somehow between all the commotion and his inability to even smile, he knew she was right where he needed to be.

And that spark?

That spark meant everything.


	2. The Reasons I Love You

"Now I am not sure which one you wanted but I hope my choice is acceptable." Brennan smiled at the ghost of the man she once adored, "I did try to choose the one that was most affective." Brennan smiled, trying to assure not only him but mostly her that taking him home was the right thing. She could be the woman he needed her to be and take care of him, right? Right. She had to be, their marriage depended on it.

"Pizza!" He gummy mumbled, "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!"

"Booth…" She couldn't help but lightly laugh at his child like giddy, "We just ate. We are picking out draperies for Parker's new room. You do remember who Parker is, don't you sweetie?"

His brown eyes shifted from the woman staring down at him with such adoration toward the fabric his hands were clenching tightly. Focusing intently on the fabric, he knew there had to be answers somewhere mixed between the blues and browns.

"He… he's…" He's voice raddled, causing his wife to practically shake in excitement.

"Yes…?" She beamed, it had been weeks since they left the hospital and although he did speak often it was not of substance, just rambles as his synapses tried to absorb the world around him, "Do you know who he is?"

"Boy." Booth blurted out, his mind working in overdrive as he tried to fit the fragments of his life together enough to give her an answer… a correct answer. She had done nothing but day after day take care of him with a smile on her face and a spring in her step. He knew she deserved that much from him, after all she had done for him… she deserved one correct answer.

Brennan's eyes jerked away but not before the tears began to flow. How could a father that loved his son so much not even remember his name… or even that he had a son? Parker was begging, pleading with her for weeks to see him but she knew she just couldn't let his heart get crushed. Booth had to remember his son… he just had to, Parker deserved a father that not only loved him but recognized him.

"Hey…" She heard a faint, familiar whisper. "Hey…" He repeated.

Slowly her head turned and briefly smiled at her husband, trying to keep the tears from falling again.

"Yes Booth?" Her voice cracked as she leaned against the shelf. She knew she was a rational woman but as the weeks passed by and his prognosis was the same she knew she was at her breaking point. She needed something… some definitive fact that all her work was not in vain and somehow through all the muck floating around his mind, he knew that too.

"Don't… don't…" His voice wavered as the tears began to come crashing down. Her twinkling eyes shot up at him and her heart broke, he really was trying and for what? Her. All he had done was for her. The miracle that he had survived the bullet and waking up… she knew he did it all for her.

How did she know? Booth was never a man that was good with dates but the anniversary of their first kiss would be a day that man could not forget if he had any say. It was the day the best thing in his life proved to him his strength, it was the day he knew he was the one. And exactly nine years from that date, he managed to pull himself back from the brink of existence, for her. He did everything for her, the least she could do was do was be there for him during his time of need.

"Why don't we go look at some sheets for our room?" Brennan smiled, trying to redirect the fragile man before he broke down in the middle of the store, "I'll let you pick them out."

Booth's eyes fell down to the fabric between his fingers, trying to focus on the vague blur of a boy in the depths of his mind. Setting down the drapes, the image passed as quickly as it had come.

"Seeley?" Brennan's reassuring smile radiated his being and he knew this was the woman that invaded his dreams nightly, vivid and so alive, she was his missing piece, "The sheets?"

With a slight nod Booth took a step forward, draping his arms lightly around the woman before him. He didn't know what had taken over him but he found himself unable to contain himself. The smile that seemed to practically make him float, she had given him more assurance than anyone else had been able to. She was his reason.

"Sheets." The word rolled off his lips in practical glee, charging down the aisle but stopping abruptly at the lamps to his left.

"Are you okay?" Caution filtered through every word as Brennan jerked back, his arms firmly holding her flush to him.

Booth instantly dropped his hands, marveling at the way the florescent lighting danced against the sport filled lamp shade. It would be a perfect addition to his active themed room, even down to the felt covering the rim.

"He would really love this." He lightly whispered before placing the shade back on the shelf and stepping around his wife toward the end of the aisle.

Brenna's heart lunged forward but her feet stayed firmly in place, letting the words practically knock her off her feet.

"Bones?" He eyed her carefully, hoping the pale hue she was taking was not an indication of her becoming sick.

"Ye-yeah." Her body lightly convulsed, blinking in utter astonishment.

"The sheets?" His smile seemed to draw her back to how they were a year ago; reminding her that somewhere deep down in his mind the man she had married had taken up residence.

"Yes, we do need new sheets." The pained inflection in her voice caused her lightly panic. "I do have a question, though."

"Yes dear?" He turned, suddenly confused with the way her eyes refused to focus but rather darken as they shot between him and the shade.

"Who did you want to get lamp shade for?"

"My son, of course."

"Of course." She mumbled under her breath, knowing for at least that exact moment all was right with the world.


	3. The Strength to Move Mountains

"It wasn't like you expected him to just wake up one day and be better, Bren." Angela's voice danced with laughter as she lazily drew in the early morning sun, "You're way too rational for that. You had to know the risks when you two came home."

Silence filled the small kitchenette that once held the laughter of a couple destined to live life of soaring highs and dangerous lows. Brennan's eyes slowly cascaded across the room so engrained with memories her body ached for the touch of that man's love. They had only had the house for a few months before his accident but the memories that bombarded her at every turn were becoming unbearable. It had been months and all she was left with was a shell of a man and the memories they once held sacred.

"Bren," Angela's eyes flicked up to see her best friend frozen in fear."You didn't… did you?"

"I…" Brendan's voice raddled as she lightly set down a glass on the counter, "I just thought he would at least show some sense of being… Booth. Some days he doesn't even remember we are married, Ang. How am I supposed to know he ever loved me?" Brennan's confession even surprised her, but after months of repression and fear the words just seemed to flow unabated.

"Somewhere deep down the man you fell in love with is in there. He may not act like it and you may not see it but you know he is. Nothing can change how that man feels about you. He just needs a little reminding is all. He waited how many years for you?" The question snapped Brennan out of her lull, slapping her senses back into reality. He had waited, longer than anyone ever should, but this was different. He was the compassionate and understanding one, and she was just her… a rational being who never seemed to get it right.

Failure. Thy name, Temperance Booth. Maybe if she had been a better woman or tried a little harder her heart would be able to mend, but there she lay slain and dying on the tombstone of a love once undeniable. But as weeks turned into months slowly her resolve began to slip, leaving her heart without direction or even a home.

"Angela, I cannot wait five years for the man I live with to do more than smile at me." Brennan hissed as she completely unraveled, "I love him but…"

"No, Bren, no buts. You love him. That is final. You may not think you have it in you, but I have seen you do extraordinary things for this man. You may not have had the abilities before but your husband has taught you a lot. A lot more than you give him credit for."

"When we came home I knew the risks." Brennan slowly muttered into the sparkling diamonds taunting her every move, "I knew it was probable that he would never fully recover. I just thought…" Her voice broke into an earth shattering whimper.

"Of course you thought things would be different. You're his Brennan and he's your Booth. It is always different between you two. When you two are apart even the sun doesn't shine as brightly as it once did."

"I don't know what that means." Brennan's voice shook as her eyes slowly shimmered with a slimmer of resolve. If Angela was so determined in whatever destiny she kept professing then maybe, just maybe, Brennan needed to believe in that destiny too.

"Bren, you may honestly not know who the latest pop star is or any slang, but Seeley Booth you know better than anyone… you even may know him better than he knows himself."

"I just need…" Brennan's voice dropped to a whisper as the front door rushed open to reveal the lengthy, shell of a man she had been sharing her bed with for all these months, "proof."

The shimmer Booth's eyes seemed to carry every time she was around seemed much definitive that morning, taunting and teasing her to just take one more step forward. Without even looking up she could feel the glow engulf her in a delicate, sweet surrender.

"Whoa there big guy." Hodgins chuckled as he steadied a rushing Booth wobbling into the kitchen.

Brennan's eyes fell upon her husband in reverence. It had been the same routine for months but the child-like excitement he held seemed to push her further in love then she knew how. Every day after therapy he came barging in the house with Hodgins in tow but this morning seemed very different.

Although his favorite chocolate chip cookies lay warm and inviting Booth stopped short and just stared. His eyes followed her every jagged and nervous movement. He had seen her naked countless times but the vulnerability of the situation had Brennan ready to run at a moment's notice. His glossed over glazed seemed to captivate her every sense, bringing her unconsciously closer.

"Temp." He lightly rasped with a toothy grin. At the sound of a name all but lost Brennan froze in complete terror.

"Hi." He giggled as his outstretched arm grasped her shaking wrist, "Look at me."

He couldn't help the smile dancing around his facial features. She looked so fragile and defeated and in that moment something deep within clicked. He was her protector and defender. She was a strong and independent woman to the world around her but to him she was that innocent child that never got to grow. The beauty and strength that that small child held was his to cherish and protect but above all else defend, against even his deep rooted failures.

"Bones…" His voice was uncharacteristically weak and haunting.

Her eyes slowly drew up his features, etching every bright feature into her long since void recent memory bank. They rimmed slowly around his jaw, unable to shift the few inches to his eyes.

Clenching her arm so tightly he knew he was going to cause her pale skin bruise, he pleaded, "…Please."

At the sound of his soft voice her body obliged in the most innocent form of reverence.

"You're beautiful." He meekly whispered. For the first time in months there was nothing but pure conviction and love passing over his lips. No fear or unclear fragments but only a bare love of a man who knew he would move mountains just to see her smile once more. "My beautiful, loving… wife."


End file.
